Contents     Previous Page      Next Page

built on the Amity Regional Senior High School in Woodbridge.

In 1967 Chris Winkle, Jr., retired as fire chief after 22 years of service. He had also served as chief engineer of the Volunteer Fire Association for 12 years and as fire marshal for 10 years. In 1957 Earl Wellington became fire marshal and served in this office until 1961 when George F. Smith was appointed. Mr. Smith is in his 12th year in that office. Upon Chris Winkle's retirement, Henry Torcellini was elected as fire chief and served until April of 1969.

In May of 1967 the Calvary Baptist Church on Grassy Hill Road was dedicated. On April 3, 1967, plans were made by the Church of the Nazarene to erect a building on Old Grassy Hill Road at the corner of Orange Center Road. The church was dedicated in 1968. It was sold to the Orange Synagogue Center in 1971.

Two years after the completion of the Holy Infant Junior High School, the old rectory next to the church was demolished and replaced by a new brick rectory on the site.

A private school was built off the Derby-Milford Road by Dr. Walter Bell in 1968. Named the Foundation School, it is for the perceptually handicapped child.

In 1969 a fifth elementary school opened on Peck Lane. The Peck Place School, built in the round, has 25 classrooms, five of which are designed for teaching handicapped children. Mrs. Doris Pierson, who had taught for many years at the Mary L. Tracy School, was appointed Principal.

Also in 1969 the Volunteer Fire Association elected Earl Becker as fire chief.

High School Referendum

Becuase of continued growth in the region the Amity Regional School Board approved the addition of two relocatable classrooms to the Amity Junior High School in Orange was defeated. A tract of land, however, has been purchased on Meeting House Lane for a proposed high school.

The Hebrew Day School, Beth Chana Hannah Academy, opened its doors on the Derby Turnpike in 1970. In 1971 conditions were so crowded at the junior high in Orange that the Amity Regional School Board voted to add six more relocatable classrooms.

As Orange celebrates its 150th year as a town, there are still growing pains. The one-time farming community has grown up to a population close to 14,000. Houses, schools and churches now fill the town. Shopping areas and industry line the Post Road and are expanding into the farm areas around Indian River Road.

There are few sidewalks in town; the mailboxes still line the road and the children are bussed to and from school. Many households still use wells, though "city water" is available in many sections of the town.

The New Haven-Derby Railroad no longer exists and most of the railroad right-of-ways have succumbed to building lots. The once-quiet highways and byways of the town now feed into the busy Wilbur Cross Parkway and the even busier Connecticut Turnpike.

Although Orange can no longer be called a farming community, there are still some areas in town where the hay is still cut and the corn chopped for silage. Fieldview Farm on the Derby Turnpike is still run as a dairy